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Lionhead Studios and Press Play closed. Fable legends cancelled.

T

Tagyhag

Member
M.D said:
XbMCgjR.jpg


Did this come as a surprise to the team? :/
Click to expand...

That's not surprising but it's still fucked.
 
C

chronic_archaic

Member
I was literally talking about when Legends was gonna release last night with a friend - I knew it was far along, what happened for real? Press Play too, a great studio themselves.
 
I

Ithil

Member
That we never got Black & White 3 or The Movies 2 and just got a decade of increasingly weak Fable games really sucks as the closing legacy for the studio.
 
B

barit

Member
Holy Shit. Lionhead was a very respectable studio in the past. There goes another legendary one :(

With MS backing them up you have to wonder what the hell did wrong over there. Damn it
 
R

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
Damn, this is unexpected.

This is now the third project MS has announced publicly then canceled this gen. The Black Tusk new IP, Phantom Dust, and now Fable Legends. Two of those studios have been shut down.
 
T

twobear

sputum-flecked apoplexy
black and white wasn't an incredible game but god if i don't remember it as one of the most magical gaming experiences of my life. everything about it was pure class, right from that lionhead logo that appeared out of all of the little points of light.
 
N

Neuromancer

Member
Wow, this was unexpected. Fable 1 & 2 were excellent games. I never played Max and the Curse of Brotherhood but I heard good things from those who did. I wish the devs of both studios the best of luck in their future endeavors.
 
F

flkraven

Member
This sucks. All I've wanted is a traditional Fable 4, and instead they spent the last 5 years fucking around and now they get closed. End of an Era. Fable 1 was one of my best gaming experiences.
 
Tizoc

Tizoc

Member
I rather enjoyed the Fable remake and only have faint childhood memories of B&W.

hOPE the employees can find employment but it's sad to hear when such companies close down :/

Dreams-Visions said:
Also, when was the last time we had a decent Fable game? That Kinect game was legit awful, right? Maybe it's MS' fault for forcing them to make a Kinect game. We probably could have had a proper sequel in the time lost on that project.



We could say the same of quite a few MS-owned franchises.

Mech Warrior / Mech Assault
Perfect Dark
Crimson Skies
Brute Force
Kameo
Conker

and so on.

TBQH, it tends to feel like Microsoft is where franchises just eventually die if they don't involve guns. Sometimes even then.
Click to expand...

Have you heard about this company called EA?
 
S

sangreal

Member
fable legends seems to be a disaster so no surprise there. I got into the closed beta or whatever but never tried it. Sucks about Press Play though -- I've enjoyed all of their games
 
U

U2NUMB

Member
I enjoyed my time with the beta but even then I was saying to myself.. Why the hell are we not getting just a new fable game?? Would have looked amazing. No idea who had the idea to do what they did but that might have been the reason..

So very sad... studio that provided a ton of fun for me.
 
H

Hard

Banned
Hated Lionhead, and all their games. Still, never good to see people lose their jobs. I hope everyone finds work soon.
 
R

Rootbeer

Banned
Was Fable Legends really looking that bad that they couldn't see it through to completion after all this time? It would have given the XB1 another console exclusive title, and an rpg at that, a gamer demographic they have not catered to very well this generation.

It's so, so sad.
 
E

EktorOni

Member
One of my best friends received a direct communication from them just a few hours ago. He wanted in on the Closed Beta so bad, he wrote multiple times to them in hopes they'd read his emails and offer him a chance to participate.

Turns out, his chance came... And hours later, this dropped.

FFS. :(
 
O

OrbitalBeard

Member
Press Play is/was such a great little studio. Closing them down seems crazy to me, as the types of games they make couldn't have been expensive and they're great for both casual and core players. They were a great asset for MS. This really sucks.
 
B

Bits N Pieces

Member
Thoughts go out to everyone affected by this news.

I am absolutely gutted about Press Play, they were such an interesting dev that seemed to be full of creative ideas and Project Knoxville looked really cool.

MS have to counter this news with something, anything! That's just PR 101.

So come on then, where the fuck is the good news?!
 
E

Effect

Member
M.D said:
XbMCgjR.jpg


Did this come as a surprise to the team? :/
Click to expand...

Damn. Outside of perhaps the people at the very top it's very likely no one else had a clue this was going to happen going by that tweet. It was business of usually until the bomb was dropped it seems.
 
C

CapitalismSucks DonkeyBalls

Banned
Wonder if it was one of those "show up Monday morning and find the doors are locked and execs are telling you to clean your desk" scenarios. Seems Lionhead had no idea. Fuck MS if that's the case.
 
F

Floody

Member
Didn't see that coming, I thought Legends was pretty much done. Wonder what happened for MS (by the sound of it) to just kill it and the studio on short notice.
 
Dr. Zoidberg

Dr. Zoidberg

Member
eFKac said:
That's a big surprise, some Xbox fans around here said that the closed beat was pretty polished and supposedly game was good.
Click to expand...

The game was pretty decent but I feel like it would never have been popular enough to make money. Even during the beta, they kept making changes over and over to entice people to play, and more importantly to pay, and it didn't look like they were too successful.

Game was very pretty, though.

EDIT - I'm not sure how closed to finished it was either. Last time I played the beta, there were entire sections that were untextrured, gray-shaded polygons.

Zulithe said:
It would have given the XB1 another console exclusive title, and an rpg at that, a gamer demographic they have not catered to very well this generation.
Click to expand...

It was a third-person online co-op action game. Not really an RPG.
 
V

Vinterbird

Member
Zulithe said:
Was Fable Legends really looking that bad that they couldn't see it through to completion after all this time? It would have given the XB1 another console exclusive title, and an rpg at that, a gamer demographic they have not catered to very well this generation.

It's so, so sad.
Click to expand...

Legends was alright. Beta was shaping up nicely.


Also everyone should go play Kalimba from PressPlay. It's a gem.
 
D

Deku Tree

Member
RIP

Fable Legends must have been a development nightmare that was getting poor private reviews and maybe there was also Fable franchise fatigue.

Is Peter Molyneux still head of the studio?
 
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